


One thing is for sure...

by Helena1205



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hunk (Voltron)-centric, Keith (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Voltron Season 1, Voltron au, mention of other characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 12:45:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11036463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helena1205/pseuds/Helena1205
Summary: Voltron Au where Hunk and Keith befriend each other during their first year at the Garrison. But things gets messed up between them when the news about the failed Kerberos Mission is published. Keith leaves without letting Hunk in on anything. After a year, when they meet up- the day Shiro came back to Earth; they meet up again. Now they have to pick up where they left.





	One thing is for sure...

**Author's Note:**

> Hunk is my fave from Voltron, and heith is my OTP. I finally got the guts to publish some fics, which i have wanted for a long time. I wanted this fic to be kind of loose with the paring. You can decide weather you want them to stay as friends, or you can choose to belive that is the start of something great. Whatever you prefer. 
> 
> Don't be too hard. English is my second language, and I am still learning. 
> 
> Tumblr: Helena1205.tumblr.com

They say that opposite attract. Keith never thought about it too much, but since he befriended Tsuyoshi (Hunk) Garret.

Hunk was different, not in a bad way. No, he was everything else. The brown-eyed boy was like a teddy bear. He was soft, nice and he was just…just the friend Keith needed. He understood. He wasn’t demanding, what Keith gave Hunk was enough. He didn’t ask for more. He took what he got and worked with that.

 Although Hunk was easy to befriend, and easy to get by, he could be stubborn, pouty and anxious. The anxious part took a while for Keith to get. Anxiety was what Hunk had told him. But as time went on, it got easier for Keith to snap Hunk out of any panic attacks or even when he felt like Hunk would go down that road. Keith wondered what a huge guy like Hunk (hence the nickname) would be anxious of.  

A lot of things actually. Hunk was panicky and always anxious. He liked routines and clear task. Where he could work after an instruction. Where the outcome was either right or wrong. It took a while, but Keith understood that this was a part of Hunk as well as the rest. But even with his troubles, Hunk was always up for making the room easier. He cracked jokes and told puns, and most of the time; they were funny.

Keith was different. He didn’t care what task or project that got thrown his way, as long as he got them done. Which resulted in that he mostly worked alone during projects. That was more because he felt like the others ideas just interfered with his, and not because he didn’t like people. He didn’t hate them, but he wished they could mind their own business.

He, himself, could be short tempered, stoic and a bit of a loner. He didn’t like being alone, he was just only reserved for people. Most of them just annoyed him. He worked towards being a pilot, something Shiro had recommended for him to try, and he got into the Garrison. He wasn’t that smart, but when the professors saw his talent for piloting, they agreed to give him a chance.

All in all, Keith never though he would befriend one like Hunk. Everything before that, showed that he did not like loud, emotional, and unsure people. Hunk was different. Keith didn’t know why, but he knew one thing;

Hunk was his best friend.

\--

Keith tried to get a book from the library down. His professor recommended that his pilot-class should each read this book before class next week. It would also be relevant for the upcoming test.

The problem was, he couldn’t reach it.

Normally, Keith was content with his body. It wasn’t too small, too big or anything like that. And it wasn’t like he wished to be any taller than he was. But right now, he wished he was a couple inches taller; so he could reach that damn book.

He tried to reach it again. Standing in the tip of his toes.

Suddenly there where another arm that took the book. Keith’s anger flared and he turned to yell at the person. How rude, this person should have seen that he wanted that book, and he just took it. No. Unacceptable.

When he turned, he met a wall. Or Keith thought so before he looked up. He met with a tall boy, which held the book out for him.

“Sorry, I saw you tried to take it. I should have probably have asked you first.” He motioned for Keith to take the book. “Should probably go.”

Dumbfounded, Keith took the book.

Keith watched as the boy started to turn. He looked him up and down. He had a bandana or headband around his head. He wore fingerless gloves, like him, and were so huge. Both in height and in size. Keith didn’t mind other people bodies, it was just something he didn’t care for. But how could a 16 year old boy be that size. Keith noted how the fabric on his sleeve curved after his muscles. Yes, he was defiantly strong. His finger tips was covered in small scraps and scars. An engineer, Keith thought. They were the only one that had hands like that. All of the engineer students had hands like that.

 “T-thanks.” Keith finally muttered.

The boy nodded quickly and left to go to another section.

Keith got a small glimpse of his eyes. Dark, brown eyes. Which wasn’t rare. Heck, the majority of the world had dark eyes of some short. But it was unusual for Keith to even notice a person’s eyes, even think about it.

He shook his head.

Keith knew he shouldn’t have been too surprised by the action. The boy was simply helping him out. Maybe he scared him. Which wasn’t uncommon. Shiro had told him that he looked rather intimidating to strangers. Something he needed to work on, as Shiro put it. Matt, his roommate, agreed on that too.

Keith knew he shouldn’t think too much of it. There where nice people out there. Even nice teenagers. This boy was probably just one of those nice ones. A nervous one, that is.

Keith just didn’t know that he had met Hunk for the first time.

\--

Hunk was caught up in his work. Lance had classes for another couple of hours or so, and that resulted in that Hunk found himself with some free time before dinner. A time he used to study.

If it was one thing he could have said about the Garrison, was that it was always something that happened.

Now, the Garrison was occupied with fishing the last touches on the project “The Kerberos Mission”, but with the news, students and the overall attention that was directed towards the mission. Hunk liked himself in the library more.

It was quiet. People didn’t talk non-stop about any mission, any school or anything. People minded themselves. And even with the small noises that was made by the students, there was still a quiet that were present.

Don’t get him wrong, Hunk though the mission to Kerberos was exciting. He could learn a great deal from the project. That would be the first time humans had sat their foot down on a satellite outside of Jupiter. They were finally traveling to the end of the solar system. Hunk thought he could learn about the mission after the attention around it had toned down.

“Can I sit here?”

Hunk was snapped away from his thoughts. He looked up and noticed an Asian boy beside him.

He nodded.

The library was fairly empty at this time. Many students still had classes, so why would he sit here. Hunk thought again, maybe this boy, usually sat on this side of the library. The bigger boy knew he preferred one section more than the others. So he didn’t blame him.

Now that the boy sat down, Hunk noticed that it was the same boy he met a few weeks earlier.

But it was probably nothing. He probably didn’t even remember him.

He continued to read.

Even when the boy started to do his own studying, Hunk couldn’t concentrate. And that came from a boy that was best friends with Lance. And Lance McClain was a distraction when they studied together.

The boy beside him had jet-black hair. Long to, it went a little farther down than his shoulders. His bangs was falling over his forehead, almost in front of his eyes. His eyes, they were so blue and dark, they looked violet.

The boy looked up at him with a questioning look.

“Humph.” Hunk quickly returned to his book. He tried not to show how nervous he got. Which was impossible for him. He was the epitome of nervousness. He was caught at staring at a stranger. The boy must think he is weird or something.

He could feel the boy looking at him, and why the heck didn’t he move. If Hunk was such a big disturbance to him, why did was he still sitting here?

“I like your bandana…”

Hunk looked at him again. The boy looked nervous too. The Hawaiian by relaxed slightly.

“Thanks. I got it from my dad.”

The boy nodded. “Keith.”

“Keith?” Hunk tilted his head.

“My name is Keith!”

“Oh…I-I’m Tsuyoshi.” Hunk smiled to him, and the boy gave a small smile back. “Everyone calls me Hunk, by the way…”

The boy-Keith tilted his head. “Hunk? How did you end up with that name?”

“My best friend gave me it. It stuck, I guess.” He shrugged.

They smiled at each other one more time. Even though Hunk wanted to continue, he couldn’t figure out what to say.

The boy Keith retuned back to his books again. Maybe that was just it. The boy just wanted to present himself. Hunk did the same.

After 20 minutes, Keith spoke up.

“You’re one of the engineers, right?” Hunk nodded, how did he know that? “I saw your hands and your books.”

Hands? Hunk looked at his own hands. Did they smell like oil or something else? They had a project of building a satellite, similar to the Mars-over. He had two of his fingers bandaged, after scraping them up by accident when he worked with some cables. Maybe this boy just knew. Hunk had his thought of which program he was on. He was almost a hundred percent sure.

“You’re in one of the pilot classes?” Hunk asked. Lance had barrowed the same book Keith had, and Lance was in the program for pilots.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe I one time will pilot a space-ship made by you then.”

At that Hunk laughed. Because what where the odds that he was going to be able to design and be a project-manager for building a space ship. Hunk could only dream.

“Well, then I better study. Wouldn’t want to have rocket-free pilots walking around without any work to do.”

And that was how Hunk and Keith became friends.

\--

Hunk waited Keith at the cafeteria. His fighter class had just ended. He wondered if Lance too was done, but then remembered that he had his lunch break later. Hunk guessed it was fine. Keith and Lance weren’t friends and they always managed to fight. Most of that was on Lance for starting every discussion. And it wasn’t like Keith did anything to avert a fight, he continued them.

Hunk perked his head up when he saw Keith came in the room. He talked a little to another student before they took off. He searched the room before he noticed Hunk and walked over.

“Hi, Keith. How was class?”

Keith nodded to him and sat down. There were a huge line in the front, where to food was, and as usual, Keith and Hunk waited for it to dim down.

“It was fine. Nothing too crazy.” He looked around. There was missing a person. Lance, Lance was not here. He was annoying, to say the least. All he did was talk and ramble on. “No Lance today, I see.” Keith said with a small smile.

Hunk hummed in agreement, glancing towards the line at the cafeteria. He was hungry; he had just had math and physics before lunch. “He has classes.”

Hunk had his book opened. He had a big test coming up, and even though he got top grades, he was still worried.

“You need to relax, Hunk.” Keith suddenly interrupted his reading.

“Huh?” Hunk looked up at him. Keith was the average person in class. He wasn’t one of the top students at the garrison, neither the ones on the bottom. Hunk knew his physical skills weighed more than his grades. Which was one if he reasons he managed to get into the garrison. Hunk was the opposite. Sure, he had muscles, but professors barely notices them. And he wasn’t fast by no means. Which meant that he had to get good grades to survive this school program.

“I said: you need to relax. Aren’t you one of the top students?” Hunk was about to answer. One of the top, but not the best in anything “And sides, the line has calmed down and I really want one of those burgers.”

Hunk smiled.

\--

“Guys, calm down?”

Hunk tried to keep Lance and Keith from not hitting each other. He started to worry that maybe Iverson or anybody else might get to them. And that meant detention and their parents would get involved.

“He started it!” Lance pointed at Keith, and practically yelled so loud that others students turned around to watch. 

“What?!” Keith threw his hands in the air. “You little-“

“Guys!” Now Hunk raised his voice. Which was a rarity to see. The brown-eyed boy liked to blend in the shadows. Not only where he big in size- easy to catch of any passer-by, but he didn’t like the attention. “Iverson is going to get us, and class is soon starting. Let’s go!

With that, Hunk dragged Lance away from Keith. They had math and Keith had health-class. Before Hunk and Lance rounded the corner, Hunk looked over his shoulder to see that Keith was looking at them with crossed arms.

Was he angry?                                                   

Right before he got his things, Keith smiled and shook his head.

They were okay. Lance and Keith was another story.

“I can’t believe him!” Lance threw is arms in the air. If Hunk knew Lance right, which he did. The Cuban would most likely rant about this until class started, And buy the time class was finished, he would have forgotten.

“Lance, you kind of did-“

“Hunk, you are my best friend. You are supposed to stay by my side.” He whined. Lance looked to his side. His friend had a sheepish smile that crossed his face.

“But Keith are my best friend too. And I really don’t want to you two to fight.”

Lance pouted. “I wouldn’t have started to fight if he didn’t-“

“Lance? For me okay?” Hunk asked.

Lance stopped. “What for you?”

“You both are my friends and I really want you to get along? Wouldn’t it be great if we all could hang out together?” Hunk pleaded. If Lance and Keith could get over this rivaly thing, Hunk believed they could all hang out like friends. And that meant that Hunk finally could stop balancing his divided friendship with those two. “Can you please, pretty please, try to be friends with Keith? I will ask him the same.”

Now Lance crossed his arms. After a while, he loosened his grip. Because this was Hunk. “I guess I could be a little nicer to him. But only if he would do the same!”

Hunk took what he got. He didn’t really believe him, but if this was what Lance gave him, he would accept that. “Thank you, Lance.”

\--

The year went as any school year would. They would wake up early for workouts, and then there would be breakfast. Then there would be classes, a lot of them. After that, there would be lunch and more classes. After the last set of classes, there would be dinner. And of course, the day ended with another training session, either it was in form of a workout or in a form of going to the simulators.

But even though everyday blended together, there where one day that was nothing like the others

**Kerberos Mission failed. Members declared dead.**

Hunk gasped. Looking around himself, he could see that there where others that were turning pale, someone was crying and others just avoided the professors eyes. The school had decided to break the news to each class.

There would be a venue to grieve and cry for the lost members. There would be a time for questioning.

Even though Hunk was sadden by the news, all he could think of was Keith. Takashi Shriogane. The pilot of the Kerberos Mission. He was a good friend to Keith. Hunk didn’t know so much about their relationship because when Hunk befriended Keith, Shriogane was often busy with training for the mission. He had never talked to him and Keith didn’t really reveal too much either. Hunk just knew that it was more than “just” a friendship.

“Not Shiro. He is too good for that.” Lance looked at the professor in disbeliefs. Hunk couldn’t blame him. Takashi Shriogane was his idol after all. Lance must be shocked.

“Students. I know this is a lot of information. It was most likely caused by some errors in the machine. We have lost communication with them and our satellites have found nothing. We are all terribly sorry. The rest of the classes today are dismissed.” With that the professor walked out and the student started full on debating what could have happened.

Hunk looked at Lance. Said boy was caught up in a discussion with another student.

He needed to find Keith.

“Lance, I need to go. I talk to you later.” 

Lance just nodded before turning back to his conversation.

Hunk didn’t think he had never moved so fast. There were a lot of students in the halls. More than Hunk had even seen. He needed to fight his way through the mass of people. Someone were looking at computers. With the brief sight of it, Hunk could already tell that there weere a lot of news about the mission.

Because this was not supposed to happen. How long had they prepared for the Kerberos. Years. Fist was Mars, then there where Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons. Kerberos was supposed to be just another moon, just another mission. That mission was supposed to revile if there had been life on Kerberos, on Pluto. If there where anything beyond the solar systems far edges.

“Hey watch it!”

Hunk looked down at a smaller student he had just walked in, or maybe they walked in each other. Hunk supposed it didn’t matter. At any other day than this, he would helped the boy up. But friends first.

As he neared the wing where Keith’s room where located, he heard whispers around him. Worse, they whispered about Keith. Hunks pulse must be around 160 beats per minute.

“Did you hear, he stole a hover-bike? Or that’s what someone in my class told me.”

What? No, Keith would not do that. Hunk knew he had a temper and easily got into discussion with others, but even Keith wouldn’t do this. This was not like him. Why would he steal a hover-bike? Where would he go? Their school was in the middle of the dessert. They were miles from the nearest city.

Finally, he reached Keith dorm room.

He knocked hard, a couple of more times than necessarily. “Keith, please open up. It’s me, Hunk.” He knocked a few times more. Around him, students where turning his way and giving him looks.

Finally, he heard some movements behind the door. When it finally opened, Keith’s roommate stood face to face with him.

“Where is Keith?” Hunk tried to look for him from where he stood in the entrance. Keith was nowhere, but his stuff where there.

“You don’t know?” Ethan was his name; Hunk remembered from the small conversations he had with the other boy.

“Don’t know what?” Hunk narrowed his eyes. Had something happened?

Ethan breathed deeply and leaned against the doorframe. “Iverson and the others told Keith about the Kerberos mission’s failure this morning because Keith and Shiro knew each other.” he paused. “Keith kind of just flipped from then. He started yelling, cursing at them and more before storming out of here.”

“Wait, he knew this morning? How do you know all this?”

“They called him inside their office early this morning. Before any class or training. I only know because he came cursing and yelling in here with the administration in heel.”

Hunk didn’t know what to think. Of course Keith would blame them. Hunk though he would that too if it was someone close to him. But was he okay, where was he know? Didn’t anyone care? Keith hadn’t even answered his messages or calls.

“I don’t really know what happened after that, because they told me to leave the room. But when I came back from breakfast they asked me if I had seen Keith since this morning.” Hunk looked hopeful. Maybe Ethan knew where he was. “I hadn’t. They informed me that Keith had stolen one of the hover-bikes we sometimes use for training  and  kind of dropped out. Or Iverson said he would be thrown out of the garrison if he ever shoved up here again.”

Okay, his pulse was definably up to a 160. Hunk didn’t doubt it.

“So no one know where he is now?” They couldn’t just leave a teen out there. There where nothing out there but sand and canyons.

“Dude, I don’t know anything about the guy. All I know is that the Garrison can’t track him or the bike down. He could be anywhere for all we know.”

Hunk nodded numbly and thanked the guy before he turned around. Other student that had been nearby, had defiantly some gossip to talk about now. With his mind racing, he walked over to the administration. Even that though made chills down his spine. It wasn’t like he was scared of going to the office, it was just every other time he had. Lance had been beside him. Lance had been the reason he was there.

He waited for like an hour before he was able to talk with Iverson. “Mr. Garret, so I think this have something to do with the Kerberos Mission, right?”

Hunk sighed. “Yes, kind of. Where is Keith Kogane?” He could see how Iverson left eyebrow twitched.

“Mr. Kogane managed to get himself expelled from the Garrison today. He had a temper issue.”

Right, but that was not the reason he got angry, “Well, I know he has a high temper, but do we know where he is? I heard that he stole hover-bike.”

“Yes, that is part of the reason he got himself expelled. He insulted both professors and the administration when we broke the news to him. We knew Mr. Shriogane and Mr. Kogane knew each other before they enrolled in the Garrison. He got upset, which was something we were prepared for, but we do not tolerate harassing of our members here, especially not professors and doctors. Many of them where a part of the Kerberos Mission and have their shoulders loaded with the media and are still trying to figure out where the malfunctions were.” He took a deep breath. “I am sorry for the loss, but the only thing we now need to do, is move forward. There will be other missions. There will be other times.” Hunk think he must be crying, because the man handed him a napkin. “But what about Keith?”

“What about him?”

“He is out there alone. We are miles from the nearest city. A hover-bike last 12 hours at top in top speed, there is no chance he would reach a city or a town.” What if Keith got stuck in the dessert. He could die of a heat stroke, dehydration or where would he find food.”

“Mr. Kogane decided self that he would break the law with stealing. If we ever find him, he will be turned in. Most likely, he will get a few years inside, and then be let lose. But he will never be able to get in here again.”

Now Hunk found himself angered. He knew the Garrison had a name they needed to hold on to. But it was by no means right to leave a 17 year old by his own devises. Keith didn’t have anyone else. Keith told him that he didn’t know his mother, his father had disappeared  when he was ten and then with a little help of Takashi Shriogane, he had manged to get into the Garrison. Keith had nowhere else to go. And of course the Garrison only focus was about fronting this situation right. So the media wouldn’t hate them. So students would still replay here. So they could still earn money.

“But Keith is out there. A student by this academy. He is 17 for good sake. He can’t take care of himself.” Hunk had never yelled to a grown up person before. Or anyone for that matter. He was the sunshine boy, never doing anything wrong. Always following orders. But this was his friend, best friend. He would not tolerate to let Keith be treated this way.

“Tsuyoshi Garret.” Iverson stood up. Hands on his desk and leaned over it. “Respect your professors.”

Hunk calmed down and suddenly he was almost back at the crying.

“Mr. Garret. I would recommend you to mind your schooling. Nothing else is your problem. Mr. Kogane decided to leave himself, if he would show up here; he is our business. Not yours. Do not interfere. We could have you sent home in a second.”

Hunk nodded, playing with his fingers.

Iverson calmed down. He sat back and breathed deeply. “Tsuyoshi, you are one of our top students, you can go far. You have so much potential. Don’t let people like Mr. Kogane or anyone drag you down.”

He nodded again, feeling the lump in his throat growing.

“If that where everything, please leave. There is lunch soon.”

“Yes, sir.”” He walked out slowly and quietly.

Only when he got back to his own room, was when he started to cry.

\--

Keith breathed deeply as he sat the buckets of water down by the front door.  It was hot, so he didn’t have a shirt on. And it wasn’t like there where anyone else here. It wasn’t like he had anyone else.

Going inside should be calming, for the last months this had been his home-but it didn’t feel homey.

He threw a shirt on, or the only shirt he had. A black one. It needed a rinse. He could do that later today, with the leftover water he wouldn’t use today. Keith walked over to the printer and hooked his camera up. There were more pictures of those lions-craving he had found in the canyon.

He had yet to find out where they came from. Looking over to his board, which was covered in pictures and pins plus a map, he knew he needed to see where these new pictures would fit.

That was the hard part.

Maybe he even needed to sneak into the Garrison again and get new supplies. A new camera wouldn’t hurt and maybe he could take some food with him. He was running low on that. In the weekend, he told himself. When the students where back and forth between the city and their school. It was easier to blend in then.

Taking the buckets inside, he divided the water in bottles. He used one whole bucked for cleaning. Especially his hands. Even Keith new that it was important to not play with your immune system. The water that wasn’t used to cleaning his body through the day, was simply used as water for cleaning his makeshift table and his small amount of cutlery and plates. The other bucket was poured into bottles, which he used for drinking and making food.

The dessert was unbearably hot. He needed to be hydrated. The last thing he wanted was to be so dehydrated he couldn’t do anything.

When he was done with storing the water, he opened an energy bar. He needed to figure out where the picture would go.

In this story, the lion was given the colour; blue. Where there other lions? Why would they need to give a colour to one lion, there must be more of them. But where were they?

Keith sighed. Even though he liked the quiet, he did not like the silence. Here, in his house, or more like shack, there was a lot of silence. He missed the everyday humming the students would give off in the hallway. He missed hearing the cafeteria line rambling about what they would get for dessert. He missed taking one of the busses the Garrison provided, so the students could go to the neighbour city in the weekends. 

He would always go with Hunk and Lance. Only Hunk actually, but Lance was Hunk’s other friend. He was part of the pack…he guessed.

Hunk…

There was a long time since he had really thought about him. He guessed Hunk had better things than worry about him. Hunk took school seriously; more serious than Keith thought was needed. Hunk had Lance, and he knew Lance was more like Hunk. They were simply a better match.

Keith missed him. Maybe it was just that he missed someone presence. Hunk was calm, or he could be if he wanted. He liked to work on his project, and for Keith, that meant that he could just hover around in the background. It was like they weren’t really spending time together; but they were. They did different things together.

He missed those times.

He finished his small lunch and stood up. Stretching his back so much it pooped, Keith gave a small smile. Carrying those two water buckets from that abandoned well that he had found. It had defiantly given him some back pain.

It was time to get back to work.

\--

Months later, Keith had set out bombs when the walls of then canyon met the dessert. From his data, he knew that something would happen today. Something that he knew had something to do with that Voltron-lion-thing. Whatever it was, Keith was prepared.

What he was not prepared for, was that it was Shiro. He would get him out of here. Keith heard what the doctors from the Garrison tried to do with him. He needed to get him away from them all. That was the least he could do for Shiro.

Another thing that he hadn’t been prepared for, was that of all the people that could spot him. It was Lance, Hunk and another boy.

Hunk…

No, that would come later. Focus on Shiro. He didn’t even know if Hunk would still be his friend anymore.

With the help of Lance, they managed to make their way out. And they manged to get spotted. That explained how everyone caught a ride with him on a hover bike that was reserved for only one person. Not five.

He was not prepared.

He wasn’t prepared for meeting Hunk after such a long time.

\--

Somehow, they all made it in one piece. Hunk and he had yet to have a conversation with each other. But they were all in one piece. Even Shiro looked better than he looked when Keith found him.

His colour had started to return. He was still fit, more fit then he had been before he left. Keith tried not to think too think too much on the prosthetic arm that had replaced his right hand. Or the many scars with covered his body, one of which grossed his nose.

Shiro was safe, and so where he. That was all that he asked for.

When thigs had finally calmed down and Shiro had both gotten his rest and some well-earned food. The group started concentrate on the Voltron. Pidge, the small boy, had also picked on something similar. The Voltron…whatever that was.

Hunk had been his ever-nervous self. Keith wondered if he would give himself a heart attack. Maybe he hadn’t change so much, but even that didn’t mean they would still be friends.

Breathing deeply, Keith made his way over to Hunk. The bigger boy was trying to build a geiger-counter of some short.

“H-Hi Hunk.” He scratched the back of his neck when Hunk turned to look at him. Keith knew Hunk well enough by now, and he could sense the confusion radiating from him. Because what in the world was Keith doing out here.

Maybe even Keith didn’t know the answer to that himself. Saying he had been searching for a robotic lion sounded ridiculous. It wasn’t like he just stopped school because he wanted to search for this Voltron-thing. He just stumbled upon one of those craving in the mountain. It kept him from losing his mind.

 “I know you must be angry with me for just leaving like that-without telling you. Or even saying goodbye. But-But thing got so messed up so quickly, I know that isn’t an explanation, but that was why I left after I heard that the Kerberos Mission failed.” Hunk blinked up at him. Keith knew he sucked at this, but didn’t everyone think so. He just needed to explain him, apologize and maybe Hunk and he could be neutral with each other. That was all keith hoped for. That Hunk didn’t hate him.

“I just came here to apologize for not telling you anything. We were friends, and I just left. I understands if you don’t want to be friends with me. But I am sorry.”

Hunk let out a breath and stood up. Keith had forgotten how tall he was.

“Hunk, just say something.” Keith raised his voice to Hunk, Yelling wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but was Hunk giving him the silent treatment. Was that why he didn’t talk to him-at all.

Before Keith could do anything, Hunk had him wrapped in a bear hug. He had lifted him off the ground and hugged him tight.

Even though Keith had hugged Hunk before, and was well aware of how tight they could be. He didn’t expect them to be this tight. Hunk had either gained a lot of muscles in his arms or maybe he was actually thinking of just crushing him.

In the end, all Keith could do was to hug back.

\--

Seeing Keith again was hard. Not “hard” that made his hearth clench and his throat close up. But hard in a way that got Hunk to wonder what the heck was he up to now. After being gone for a year, Keith still looked like his intimidating, angry, skilled self. Still Keith.

What confused him was that Keith didn’t say his name. Maybe that was because the whole situation was out of place. Hunk was pretty sure they had broken the law on many levels. So he didn’t blame Keith for not using his name. But he had barely looked at him.

Maybe Keith was angry with him for not helping when the Kerberos Mission failed. Hunk felt bad about that too. It ate him up from the inside. Keith needed someone back then, and Hunk had listened to Iverson and not gotten involved.

He stayed in the safety lane as always.

Now, they met again. At least he was okay and alive. He was miles away from the Garrisons home base, in a shack. Hunk supposed it was better than nothing. He noticed that a lot of the things where from the garrison; maybe this shack was abandoned by them.

Hunk did what he did best, follow orders and do his work.

His task in this group was to build a geiger-counter that could recognise the rays the “element” gave off. It was hard, and it got worse when he saw Keith walking over to him. He would most likely just offer some water, which he had given all of them earlier. Neutral, like they were strangers once again.

 Hunk was surprised when he heard Keith talking to him. Like an actual conversation.

Keith apologized. Hunk honestly thought it wasn’t needed. Keith was right, he was probably a mess after knowing about Shiros estimated death, but he still shouldn’t have left. Hunk could have helped! Somehow, he knew he could have helped.

Hunk quickly stood up and could quickly see how worked up Keith got. He started to yell. A little funny to think that the end of their friendship started with Keith yelling at the Garrisons headmasters. Or, it didn’t end, their friendship, it was just put on pause.

He hugged him, probably too tight. But Hunk thought the pain Keith got from his hug would be his way of making it up. “Kill them with kindness” as his dad would put it.

“Thank God you’re okay. I was so worried.” Hunk muttered, feeling Keith’s arms wrap around his neck. “I-I didn’t know what to do when I heard that you were thrown out. They told me to mind my own business. I didn’t know what to do, but I was worried.”

He loosened the hug, but had no plans on letting go.

Keith nodded. “Yes I am, Big Guy.” Even Keith couldn’t help but smile. They were okay, all of them. Maybe not perfect, or fine, but okay. “I felt awful after that. I am surprised you even want to be friends with me.” The smaller boy laughed uneasy.

“Don’t worry, Keith. We are best friends.” Hunk put him down, but they still help onto each other.

Hunk didn’t know what Keith had been up to the last year, but he knew it would be a time for an explanation. He was just happy that Shiro was alive. And most of all, he was incredibly happy that Keith and he was still friends. Even in all this mess, Hunk knew one thing. And that was;

Keith was one of his best friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
